The Business of Fashion

New York Fashion Week | Iqons, Rodnik and a Manifesto for change

On Sunday night, Rodnik and Iqons teamed up for a buzzing party in New York to celebrate the launch of the first ever Iqons magazine and Rich and Phil'€™s continued creative collaboration in music and fashion. Even the big guns from Vogue (Andre Leon Talley) and the New York Times (Cathy Horyn) were squeezed into the tiny cabaret space at The Box to catch the latest installment of the Rich and Phil show, which included a capsule of looks from their A/W collection to be shown in its entirety during London Fashion Week.

It's a good thing that Rich and Phil made the trans-Atlantic trip, because Sarah Mower reported in The Observer on Sunday that that after the global stock markets sank in January, the British Fashion Council began to receive calls from American buyers canceling their trips to London.  Is last season's rebound of London Fashion Week under threat?

Fashion Rocks: An opportunity to seize

Fashion Rocks bills itself as the most glamorous event on the planet. If there is a night on the London fashion calendar that can compare to the see-and-be-seen status of New York's Costume Institute Gala, this is it. It was originally started by the Prince's Trust, a UK-based charity which endeavours to bring new hope to the lives of underprivileged youth. Proceeds from the event are directed to this worthy cause.

The first Fashion Rocks was held at Royal Albert Hall in London in 2003 and teamed famous musicians and fashion designers together, strutting their stuff (quite literally) in a series of fabulous performances, complete with pyrotechnics, choreographed dance ensembles, and of course, some no-bones-about-it fashion glamour. The event was reprised two years later in Monaco, taking on Swarovski as its lead sponsor.

New York Fashion Week: Innovative brand building

Emerging brands usually don't have the marketing budget and editorial muscle to build big brands and it can therefore be extremely difficult to get above all the noise and stand out from the crowd. Yesterday, I was thrilled to see two young brands partner with major retailers in innovative ways to build brand awareness.

My favourite guerilla marketers from Rodnik launched their "We are not a rock brand" tour at Barney's New York. They played to an appreciative crowd of lucky customers and industry insiders, with their sidekick Peaches Geldof supporting Phil on vocals. The guys were understandably excited about the tour which rocks up at one retailer after another, from Colette in Paris to Comme des Garcons in Tokyo to Corso Como in Milan, over the next couple of months. 

For people who had never heard of Rodnik, it's not likely a performance they will soon forget, what with that 80's throwback and all that energy. Here's a sneak preview video of their opening tour song, the surprisingly catchy "How to be Lovely":

Links of the week: Ethical plastic, Tom Ford, and Rodnik for HBS

Thisismoney.co.uk: Exposed: I am not an Ethical Bag and Susie Bubble: I am not a Smug Twat
The Anya Hindmarch "I am not a Plastic Bag" PR catastrophe got worse when it was revealed that the bags were made in China and probably cost a carbon fooprint fortune to get them over to the UK. Now, in an even funnier twist, Susie Bubble has photos of ripoff bags m0cking the buyers of those bags, saying "I am not a smug twat" on sale for £19, but currently sold out. Certainly not the expected turn of events for Sainsbury's, or Anya Hindmarch, or most upsettingly, for the genuine campaigners for ethical and socially responsible consumption. BoF first discussed this issue back when a horde of desparate shoppers queued up my street, clamouring for the bags on weekday morning.

New York Magazine: Tom Ford After Sex
Another article on Tom Ford (he's clearly got PR under control) this time from New York Magazine. If you want to get into the psyche of the man himself, this article will help you get there.

Financial Times, Style: Models of a Financial Kind
You've heard of Roland Mouret for Gap and Giles Deacon for New Look, but now its Rodnik for HBS. Back in the Autumn, I talked to Rich and Phil of Rodnik about designing a t-shirt for the 5th year reunion of my business school class. They have woven this into their latest Financial Times column on the Adventures of Fashion.

© 2007 Copyright Imran Amed - The Business of Fashion.

Rodnik: This is not a rock band

Selfridges in London held an event tonight celebrating the launch of a new Surreal Things exhibit at the Victoria & Albert museum. Anyone walking down Oxford Street over the past week has probably seen the designer windows commissioned by the Oxford Street emporium, showing the creative work of Victor & Rolf and John Galliano, among others. [If you haven't seen the windows, you can see photos of them on Susie Bubble's site]. Another window has been designed by the dynamic duo of Rich and Phil, also known as Rodnik, who were the real stars of tonight's launch event.

I first met the Rodnik guys during New York Fashion Week in September 2006. I had been introduced to them via email by a business mentor of theirs, Maria Stammers, from the Portobello Business Centre in London. I had been exchanging text messages to arrange a meeting with Rodnik during Fashion Week in New York, but when I spotted two guys after the Peter Som show in cool webbed black wool cardigans with matching peach-coloured ties and that je-ne-sais-quoi English dandyism, I knew it was them. I tapped Rich on his shoulder and asked if they were Rodnik. At the time, they looked amused that someone would actually recognise them (or, at least, had heard of them). When I explained that I was the one whom Maria had referred, any awkwardness disappeared and we nipped off for an afternoon coffee in Bryant Park where I learned all about their budding business and their vision for where they wanted to take it.

Since then, we have kept in touch regularly and I have watched as they have  faced various business challenges (Production!), declared major fashion victories (Barneys! French Vogue! Lily Cole!), and shared their charm with the fashion world (Anna Wintour! Karl Lagerfeld! Julie Gilhart!), who have simply fallen head over heels for these two quintessential non-designer designers. With their brilliant marketing skills (Parasols! Spoof fashion show! FT Column!) they have built the beginnings of a brand.

Their latest adventure has been to put together an entourage/band/posse that includes the illustrious Peaches Geldof, maven of the London social scene (although Rich says posses are for cowboys not rockstar fashion designers). Tonight the Rodnik band gave its debut "concert" at Selfridges and the guys put on an inspired performance in line with evening's surreal theme using a miniature piano, a child-sized set of drums, an old school record player pumping out The Doors and for lead singer, a mannequin with a top hat dressed in Rodnik .  The entourage provided requisite levels of vocal support and cool factor throughout while the photogs were all leaning into capture the moment.

Does this sound like a luxury fashion label? Well no, not really. But it is brilliant marketing and will continue to weave interesting stories around which the Rodnik lifestyle brand will be built.

Burlesque beauties hawking (surreal) scent-free perfume

Pre-show atmosphere


Surrealists

The debut


Stylish onlookers

Copyright Imran Amed 2007. All rights reserved.